Until There Was Nothing. . .Except a Groovy Floor

Well, we've been served our last meal. No, we're not awaiting a tragic fate--we've just removed all kitchen-y things from the kitchen and the room is officially empty. The last meal cooked in the kitchen, by the way, was Dad's delicious chocolate chip pancakes, a special request from both boys this morning.

After breakfast, Bill cleaned up, ran the water for the last time, and began to destroy the remains of the kitchen. I attempted to take the boys to church, (there was a church picnic at an alternate location this morning about which I totally forgot and then ended up missing church) while Bill dug in with a crow bar, hammer, safety goggles, and a whole lot of toil. By the time I got home with the boys, all the lower cabinets were gone, the stove was out front, and the dishwasher was almost out the door. Bill finished tearing out the drywall and then rewired a few outlets. Then, after moving a couple of switches, it was time to tackle the floor.

Ah, the floor. There were three layers of linoleum, each one uglier than the next. Now, I don't care what kinds of illicit things people were doing back in the 70's; there is no excuse for a floor that looks like this (see photo below). Plus, there was a subfloor that was 3/8 inches thick. The worst part: there were about ten three-inch nails per foot of subfloor--no lie! See the photographic evidence below. Bill worked all day and managed to get half of the floor out and to the dumpster. It looks like the rest of the floor will be coming out later this week. For now, we have a wide open kitchen with only the soffit and floor left to remove. Unfortunately, the soffit was built off of the rafters, so as soon as we take the soffit out, all the insulation will fall down, too. Anyone know any magic tricks to keep this from happening?

In the meantime, we're using the Mud Room as a kitchen. In case you're wondering what people eat when they don't have a kitchen, tonight's fare included grilled meats (sirlion), microwave mashed potatoes (no gravy), and grapes all served on the finest paper plates money can buy. Stay tuned for more culinary delights from the newest in fine dining, the Mud Room.